As this week’s episode of Top Chef opens, it’s nighttime in Chicago—except, this being a reality show, we can’t help but suspect that it’s actually very early in the morning and that our favorite chef contestants are about to be roused from their beauty sleep. Sure enough, we discover it’s 5.45 AM as judge Tom Colicchio wakes up the Top Chef house and announces the Quickfire Challenge: The sleepy group will work the short-order egg station at Lou Mitchell’s, one of Chicago’s most famous breakfast spots.

Jennifer 8. Lee loves chicken feet and Chipotle. Photograph courtesy of Jennifer 8. Lee.

New York Times reporter Jennifer 8. Lee’s witty new book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, unearths the origins of the fortune cookie, explores the invention of General Tso’s chicken, and recounts the kosher-duck scandal of 1989 at Rockville’s Moshe Dragon. During Lee’s stint in the Washington bureau of the Times, she was known for parties she held in her loft near the Washington Convention Center, featuring fried dumplings made from scratch and a slew of boldface names. Still reporting in addition to selling books, she took a few minutes to answer our either/or questions.

Chop’t or Chipotle?

Chipotle. I love that people think of burritos as a Mexican food when in fact—like beef with broccoli and spaghetti and meatballs—it is a dish that is largely indigenous to the United States.

Chinatown bus or Amtrak?

The Chinatown-bus network will take you to crevices of the map where Amtrak doesn’t go—anywhere you can find a Chinese restaurant: Kalamazoo, Michigan; Wausau, Wisconsin; Jackson, Tennessee. 

Photographs by Michael Wilkinson

Pizza is a sensitive subject among many different groups—one misconception about a region’s style of pie can get you chased out of town. Brooklynites swear by the thin crusts at DiFara’s, Chicagoans dig in deep at Gino’s East, Sicilians have their squares, Napoleons lay claim to inventing the thing, and Washingtonians just rely on Comet Ping Pong and 2 Amys.

By opening Pete’s Apizza in DC’s Columbia Heights, husband and wife Joel and Alicia Mehr and business partner Tom Marr have imported the lesser-known—but just as fiercely defended—New Haven style of pizza to the neighborhood.

One of the toughest jobs in town might be host-stand duty at Cork. All night long, customers tap the hostess on the shoulder to ask how much longer they’ll have to wait for a table. Hour-plus waits for one of the 79 seats at this Logan Circle wine bar are typical even if you call ahead to put your name on the waiting list.

The reason everyone from mussy-haired twentysomethings to middle-aged theatergoers is willing to spend a good bit of the night flattened against a vestibule wall is the food, which transcends rustic simplicity and handily beats both the neighborhood and wine-bar competition.

The magazine's Best Bargain Restaurants issue hits newsstands next week, with more than 25 newcomers nudging their way onto the annual list of 100 -- not to mention an up-close and personal look at the key players in the world of cheap eats and a celebration of some of the region's defining dishes (pho, dosas, kabobs, wats, pupusas).

With that in mind, and with food and wine editor Todd Kliman on assignment, we thought it only fitting to convene a special cheap eats panel to host Kliman Online this Tuesday, May 20, at 11.

Our guests may lack the pedigree and the publicity machine of their counterparts in the world of fine dining, but they are forces, nonetheless: Yared Tesfaye, the owner of Etete in DC's Little Ethiopia, the best Ethiopian restaurant in the region; Larry Ponzi, the proprietor and pizza-maker at Cafe Pizzaiolo, in Crystal City, home to one of the most addictive pies in town -- boutique or otherwise; and Kerry Britt, who runs KBQ in Bowie, which serves up stellar country-style 'cue and sides.

Nathan Beauchamp is going West. Photograph courtesy of Heather Freeman.

•Nathan Beauchamp, chef de cuisine at 1789, is leaving his post at the Georgetown institution this summer. “It’s disappointing, but he’s restless,” says Clyde’s Restaurant Group corporate chef John Guattery, who oversees Beauchamp and the other chefs under the Clyde’s-owned umbrella. Guattery says Beauchamp is contemplating a move to the West Coast, possibly Seattle. “ I do think he’ll stay in restaurants,” Guattery says. “I think it’s truly in his heart. Although I think like all of us in restaurants, there are days when you really don’t want to do this anymore.” Guattery is searching for a replacement, and as of now, Beauchamp’s last day is slated to be June 17. So get his versions of steamed clams with chorizo and steak tartare while you can.

•Lots of foodie stuff to do this weekend: Savor: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience is at the Mellon Auditorium tonight and tomorrow; the Food & Wine Festival at National Harbor runs tomorrow and Sunday.
    Also on Sunday, Indique and Indique Heights chef KN Vinod will hold a cooking demonstration from 11 AM to noon as part of the “Chef at Market” program at the Dupont Circle FreshFarm market (20th St. between Massachusetts Ave. and Q St., NW); Taste of Wheaton, with $1 samples from over 20 local restaurants, runs from 11 AM to 5 PM at the corner of Grandview Avenue and Reedie Drive; and Taste of Arlington, with $2 samples from 45 restaurants, is at Ballston Common Mall and Wilson Boulevard from noon to 7:30. 

FeedBack—our feature where we ask you, the diner, for a restaurant critique on the street—has gone video! This week, we staked out Corduroy, which recently moved from the blah Sheraton on K Street to a brownstone near the Convention Center. What did diners think about the more intimate space? And are Tom Power's sea scallops as good as they used to be?